Druidry

Druidry

Druidry is a form of modern spirituality or religion that generally promotes harmony and worship of nature and respect for all beings, including the environment. This religion still exists nowadays in Britain and Ireland, but it has ancient origins.
Differently from the modern religion, old druidry was a lot more controversial.
The main reason of this controversy is the practice of human sacrifice.
Greek and Roman writers frequently made reference to the druids as practitioners of human sacrifice, a trait they themselves reviled, believing it to be barbaric.
Caesar, in the Commentarii de Bello Gallico, claimed that the sacrifice was primarily of criminals, but at times innocents would also be used, and they would be burned alive in a large wooden effigy, now often known as a wicker man.
Other documents report that sacrifices were also carried out by drowning and hanging the person.
The druids also used to sacrifice holy animals or observe the flight of birds to predict the future.

Besides these abominable practices, druidism was a pacific religion, and the only reason that led to human sacrifice was ignorance.
The druids believed in the rebirth of the soul, that would undergo a process of successive reincarnations, either always in human form, or in a variety of forms that might include trees and even rocks, as well as animals.
The most important aspect of this religion was the worship of nature.
Between their deities, along with the gods and goddesses, there were hundreds of different types of trees, and animals.
An interesting example is the worship of the spider.
The Spider, because of its characteristics, had come to be associated with magic and the energy of creation.